Why books are undergoing disruption - Research Paper Example

? Books and Disruption Table of Contents Introduction 3 The Innovation factor in EBooks 4 a. 4 b. 5 c. 6 Conclusion 6 References 8 Introduction The world in the 21st century is evolving at a very first pace. It is important to mention that the rapid pace of evolution is happening because of first change and tremendous development. The emergence of various kinds of technological advancements has played a major and catalytic role in the process of communication as well as the methods of doing business all over the world. Talking in a detailed manner, the development of the internet powered communication technology along with the factor of rapid rise and faster acceptance of various kinds of technological gadgets has resulted in the process of a massive global technological revolution. As a result of this revolution, the world has been automatically transformed into a single well connected global entity. It needs special highlighting of the fact that the technological revolution that has affected both the developed as well as the developing markets has brought a tremendous change in the nature and behaviour of the masses around the world. The masses of the present day increasingly prefer to live a dual life. This dual life promotes physical presence in the real world as well as virtual presence in the internet connected world. In order to stay connected to their virtual selves in the virtual world, the masses prefer to acquire various smart technology devices like Smartphones, I-pads, tablets. These technological devices besides helping the masses to stay connected to the virtual world, also comprises of a number of technology powered applications. These applications automatically results in bringing a change in the behaviour of the masses. In this tech savvy era, it has become a common trend of the masses to use the technological gadgets as much as possible for the accomplishment of daily work as well as even gaining access to knowledge and related resources. Thus this has automatically given the base for the rise in demand for books in the electronic medium. The Innovation factor in EBooks The rise in demand for e-books automatically represents that the books in the physical medium is getting obsolete in nature. In order to understand the nature of change that is happening in the book arena, the focus has to be given on innovation. The nature of innovation can be incremental as well as disruptive. Incremental innovation represents the process of adding and increasing the value of the existing products in a step by step manner (Shavinina, 2003, p. 120). On the other hand, disruptive innovation means a sudden surge in value as compared to the already existing model of product. This sudden and massive increase in value might result in the process of making the previously existing product look outdated in nature. However, a disruptive innovation takes a longer time to gain stability as compared to the incremental innovation (Kelley, 2010, p. 32). A very important feature of disruptive innovation is that it ends up creating a new market for a new segment of customers (Bjarnason, 2013). In case of eBooks, a very similar kind of pattern can be identified. Before eBooks emerged into existence, there was no market for this kind of a product and the customers preferred to read and gather information from the physical book form. However, the evolution of eBooks resulted in the development of a new market where customers preferred to take the enjoyment of book reading from the technology enabled media and gadgets. a. In this particular case, it needs to be highlighted that the company that is dealing with eBooks has a first mover advantage. Now, in case of a company, that have a first mover advantage with eBooks, it simply represents that the company is trying to promote and stabilize the market as well as create a demand for eBooks, a product which has been developed on the lines of disruptive innovation. However, it is important to mention that the product might fail despite having a first mover advantage. The first and most important reason behind it is that the company with the first mover advantage needs to concentrate and create enough demand in the market for their eBook products to sell. In simple terms, it can be said that the market acceptance for a first mover advantage associated product cannot be guaranteed in anyway (Ebben, n.d.). Also, the company needs to concentrate on providing significant upgrades to the EBook, to make its product differentiated in nature with regards to the emerging competition. It might also happen that a new and emerging competitor with a better product appeal and value can capture the market at a much faster pace. b. It needs to be highlighted that any new technology that is being launched and introduced in the market place attempts to create a significant amount of change in the demand for other already existing products. However, the change is more visible when a digitization based technology attempts to take over the market of a physical product. It needs little doubt in mentioning the fact that the eBook is a classic example of disruptive innovation. With the development and emergence of eBooks, a complete new market segment related to the eBooks has emerged. The associated factors like greater value proposition along with the factor of cheap prices have resulted in the process of impacting the bottom lines of the traditional book publishers (Wieckowski, 2010). However, it also needs to be highlighted that in order to make the disruptive innovation of eBook a lot more stable in nature, the sustainability quotient has to be considered. For developing the sustainability factor, the technology supporting the eBook needs to be continuously upgraded and the look need to improved in a continuous manner. c. Since the company has the first mover advantage in regards to the EBook product, it has to be acknowledged that the company has to tackle the issues and challenges associated with developing the market as well as creating the demand for the product in the market. For the purpose of creating the demand in the market, the company can focus on giving advertisements for its eBook products in the various markets. Also, the company can enter into collaboration with a book publishing company, thereby providing the publishing company with the medium to publish their most popular and hot selling books to publish in the eBook format. This will automatically result in the process of increasing the value creation for the customers and will automatically promote growing demand for the company’s eBook and related products. Finally, it can be said that for the purpose of attaining product success in the markets in regards to the Ebooks, the company should look forward to creating a bundle, which will combine the ebooks with an ebook reader. This will help in creating more value for the customers. Conclusion It needs to be highlighted that the market for eBooks is a growing and emerging one. With the step by step development of technology, the masses all over the world will be looking forward to getting their daily dosage of information and knowledge related inputs from the technological medium. Hence, it needs to be mentioned that in terms of the future, there is significant scope of development of market for eBooks. It also needs to be highlighted that any kind of new trend in the market often arises from the developed regions and then gets rapidly diffused over the internet in the markets of the upcoming and developing economies. Talking in regards to this case, it can be assumed that since the company is having a first mover advantage in regards to the eBook market, hence it is very much possible that the company is currently located in a region of new and emerging economy. It has already been discussed that since the company is having a first mover advantage, hence the responsibility is on their shoulders to develop the market for the eBooks in the emerging economy. Now talking in regards to the future, it is of high importance to mention that a sizeable market of the eBook will comprise of books of scientific nature as well as educational and recreational nature. With the consulting firm Pricewaterhouse coopers making an overall projection of the eBook market for the year 2017 at 16.1 billion USD, it can be said that the company can attain a significant amount of growth in the new market of the emerging economy in the upcoming future (Owen, 2013). References Shavinina, L.V. (2003). The International Handbook on Innovation. UK: Elsevier Kelley, B. (2010). Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire: A Roadmap to a Sustainable Culture of Ingenuity and Purpose. UK: John Wiley & Sons. Ebben, Jay (n.d.) The Problem With Being First. Retrieved from: http://www.inc.com/resources/startup/articles/20050601/firstmover.html [Accessed 6 June 2013] Wieckowski, A. (2010). Ebooks: Getting Beyond Disruption. Retrieved from: http://blogs.hbr.org/hbr/hbreditors/2010/02/ebooks_getting_beyond_disruption.html [Accessed 6 June 2013] Bjarnason, B. (2013). Which Kind of Innovation? Retrieved from: http://www.baldurbjarnason.com/notes/the-ebook-innovation/ [Accessed 6 June 2013] Owen, L.H. (2013) PwC: the U.S. consumer ebook market will be bigger than the print book market by 2017. Retrieved from: http://paidcontent.org/2013/06/04/pwc-the-u-s-consumer-ebook-market-will-be-bigger-than-the-print-book-market-by-2017/#comments [Accessed 6 June 2013] Read More